Folks – I need help.
I am so stuck trying to decipher my diary from the start of the Trinity term of 1975, I have been putting off progressing my write-ups…
…well, actually, to be fair, real life has intervened a lot these last few weeks.
Anyway, I really am stuck on one page so much, I am going to throw my questions out to the hive mind of Alleyn’s alums from my era and see if the collective brains can solve some of these mysteries.
Here’s an attempt at unpicking the words in the diary page pictured above, Tuesday to Saturday.
Tuesday 22 April 1975 – went back to school. Classes good. TV Edward The Seventh.
Wednesday, 23 April 1975 – appointed cricket vice captain. TV Robin Hood, The Survivors, The Fight Against Slavery.
Thursday, 24 April 1975.– Taking violin grade 2. Rotten fish. TV Are You Being Served.
Friday 25 April 1975 – Dr Chow took rest Fartleck training. TV The Husband of the Year, The Good Life.
Saturday 26 April 1975 – scored in cricket match. Good match. Richards c Cox b Cummings 75. TV Canon (Fatso Fuzz).
Questions – let’s start with the Wednesday’s cricket vice-captaincy. This will have been an appointment for my class, 2AK, team, not the firsts or seconds. But can anyone out there tell me:
- what did the role of vice-captain entail in such a team? Was it a bit like being the vice-president of the United States, only without the hate? I have no recollection of doing anything captain/vice-captain like at that time. Indeed, finding that diary entry was a bit of a surprise.
- who was the captain of that team? We weren’t the sportiest class and the few sporty people we had tended not to condescend to play cricket for the class. I’m pretty sure that Jumbo Jennings, for example, was far too busy dominating other sports to show his face on a cricket pitch until his terrifying arrival with ball in hand the following season. I’d guess Ian Feeley but hopefully someone (e.g. Ian) remembers.
- who would have chosen these key roles in that vital tournament? Tony King, our form master, presumably.
Moving on to Thursday, what does the phrase “Rotten Fish” mean in that context? Was that a slang phrase we were using to show discontent? I don’t remember it. Or was it some in joke or code phrase of my own, which I expected to remember for all time? Paul Deacon – you were our form catch phrase merchant.
Similarly, even worse, on Friday, what on earth do I mean when I write that Dr Chow “took rest Fartleck [sic] training”? I am pretty sure that Chris Liffen taught us biology that year and Chow taught us chemistry. But perhaps I am wrong. My chemistry was never very good, so perhaps the phrase “rest Fartleck training” makes perfect sense to a decent scientist. Or to other reluctant scientists like me who had made up some sort of lingo.
Update: Paul Deacon chimed in on Facebook to point out that, “From Wikipedia: Fartlek is a middle and long-distance runner’s training approach developed in the late 1930s by Swedish Olympian Gösta Holmér.” My failure even to do a simple Google search on the term Fartlek makes me feel “old fart-like” 🤪
I cannot unpick Richards, c Cox b Cummings 75. Who were we playing for a start? And what level was I scoring? I don’t think I was promoted to scoring first eleven games until a little later in the season.
Returning to slang, the only phrase I recognise as being family slang is the notion that Canon, the TV detective, was “fatso fuzz”. My dad would have cultivated that phrase, in part as self-effacing humour.
Dad sort of liked and sort of disliked the Canon series. He liked the idea of a portly cop but liked to ridicule the plots and writing. Indeed, he had a theory that the studios had computers that were generating the scripts for such programmes, as each week’s programme seemed like a slight variant on its predecessor story.
You were 45-50 years ahead of the curve, dad.
Anyway, I apologise unequivocally if I have hurt the feelings of any portly people or anyone who works (or has ever worked) in law enforcement.
